Governor Bobby Jindal and CGI Executive James Peake announced the company’s selection of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s research park for the establishment of a technology center that will create 400 direct jobs.

The technology center will develop complex business and IT solutions for clients.

A key part of the project includes a state-funded, 10-year, $4.5 million higher education initiative led by UL Lafayette that will result in a tripling of the number of undergraduate degrees awarded annually by the university’s school of computing and informatics.

That growth is anticipated to place the university’s computer science program among the top 25 such programs nationally for the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded annually.